Sex, Humour, and Antics in New Online Show "The Jim"

"I'm the juice man at The Jim. I bet you didn't know this, but girls love a guy who can blend fruit," jokes Ryan Cowie, one of the stars of a hot new online comedy series that takes place in a gym.  

Bean Around the World on Cornwall could not have been a better venue to get the skinny on "The Jim." The show features a core cast of seven characters: Jim, the gym owner, Lance, the Juice Mixologist, Miranda, the Bootcamp Instructor, Christine, the Yoga Instructor, Personal Trainers Adrian and Lucky, and The Accountant.

Co-creators of the Jim, Ryan Cowie and Nelson Carter-Leis provided some hilarious insights into how this ensemble series will be played out to the max throughout their first season. Ryan and Nelson have created some ridiculously quirky characters that are a must see. The show explores the daily life at a gym and never fails to include a healthy dose of sexual humour that anyone who has ever been to a gym can appreciate.

The Jim was lucky enough to shoot on location at downtown Vancouver’s Groundwork Athletics, which is in one of the cities leading personal training gyms.

What do you want your viewers to know about your show?

Nelson: We are an over the top comedy about the daily life in a gym. 

Why a show about a gym?

Nelson: That’s the way entertainment is going, and so we thought this is it---a web series it is. Funny thing is that the location came up before the characters and overall arc of the series, because we wanted a niche however not too specific. A boxing gym came up, but it was too narrow of an idea. 

Plus, gyms have a very sexual energy.

Does your character shed some light on your personality?

Ryan:  Yes, for sure. Although you’re writing fiction you have to find those traits inherent to yourself and make light of them. For instance, Nelson is a little neurotic at times, and it plays out well with his character. And Teagan Vincze our Yoga teacher is pretty saucy in real life, which she did a great job bringing to her character.

What was the most embarrassing thing that happened to you on the show?

Nelson: That's easy. I'll try to tell this one without making it too much of a spoiler. We were shooting a scene where I burst out a door and run down this alley naked. But right before they called action I had to be staged waiting naked in this loading bay. Well unbeknownst to all of us involved, the manager of that building was watching me on a security camera, and he was livid. So I guess he ran down to where he thought I was, but by that point I was running down the alley in all my naked glory. Supposedly, he tore a strip of our location manager - poor guy.

Ryan: Funny you should ask. My character teaches a Yoga class in Episode 5(airs Jan 4/2010) and his off center theory of Yoga is everyone has an inner animal and that inner animal has to be released. He ends up bouncing around the yoga room like an ape, picking bugs from student’s ears, and generally scaring the snot out of everyone. Although acting like an ape comes naturally, it was still a little embarrassing.

What are the people like that you work with on set?

Nelson: Jon Morris, our Director, basically brought the crew side of things to the table. Monitor digital solutions provided monitors and equipment. Overall, we had a great team who were very supportive during some long 12 hour shoot days. When people are volunteering it's important to keep them well nourished so next to location, catering was one of our largest expenses. The core team when actually shooting is about 25-30 people.

Our post production supervisor and editor is Jason Myers. Jason presented a collaged rough cut and we helped to tweak it.

What other shows have you played in that we should keep our eye out for?

Nelson: I was in a sci-fi film called Helix, yet to be released in Vancouver. In it, there's a literal wall through the city with one being old Vancouver and the other a pristine fake future. That's how I met Elfina Luk, who plays Lucky and is our other Executive Producer. 

Ryan: The last project was a horror movie called Zombie Punch hangover, and then before that most notably was Passchendaele (2008) a war movie by Paul Gross. 

What was the hardest part for you going for your goal to become an actor?

Ryan: I guess it’s the sacrifice of lifestyle. You don’t have a regular income, so you’re always looking for a new job and I’ve lived the cliché’d lifestyle working at a restaurant. It’s self-affirming, if you get paid for what you do. I think I've always had pretty modest goals as far as an income, but if I could make $50,000 a year, I'd be a happy guy.

Nelson: Continuing to be a cheerleader for myself is the hardest. It’s easy to question your talent if you didn’t’ come out of the gate at 18, and land a role on 90210 for 5 years. Some did, but that’s not my story.

What would you tell aspiring young actors?

Nelson: Write. Write a journal, a play, or a TV script. You have to write something because other than the creative process there’s also the knowledge that it gives you about what a writer is looking for.

It helps your acting. It’s empowering. It doesn’t matter if it doesn’t get published. Write, write, write, write.